This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It's worthy of your consideration.

Join the resistance! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by summer and it might possibly go higher! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around earlier! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..... not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea:

For the rest of 2007, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you?

Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

do some homework on the oil and gas industry (specifically US vs non us production levels, BBL/oil pricing trends - curent vs historical; refinery capacity/production) not just what your read on the internet. ingnorance is bliss....

They all get there fuel from the same pipeline. They just add their own aditive after they extract it from the refinery pipeline. You don't buy from one, you just go to the other and the just get more from the pipeline to meet their demands. The need for gas is the same regardless.

Rod, that's not 100% accurate...owners of refinerary's will use what they need but have excess capacity they will push thru pipelines. For instance you can get Valero gasoline made in a valero refinery. you can also get Exxonmobil gas out of a valero refinery. Sometimes it can be cheaper to buy gas from other refineries than refine yrouself.

Since the fact that gas prices are at record highs and so is the demand. That should tell you something. People will pay $5 for a latte or $1.50 for a bottle of water but complain about gas at $3 a gallon. I hate high gas prices to believe me but we are to dependant on foreign oil. A hurricane scare in the persian gulf rose gas prices recently. Or if Iran gets pissed at the US the gas prices go up. The oil companies do not set the price of oil remember that.

I get what you are saying Sam and I am sure I am not totally up on it, but isn't that kind of the same thing or I guess my post tends to tell it as Valero and Shell pump into the same pipeline and extract from the same pipeline? I saw a show a year or two back that showed a pipeline that ran from Texas or so up to the northeast that the refiners pushed their gas into and then the different companies would extract from the pipeline and then companies like Cheveron would add their Techron additives to the basic gas comming from the pipeline. There are only so many refineries in the country so it is easier to ship via the pipeline. That is at least what I got from the program. California, I can see being different since all the refineries are close enough to deliver from and Cali having it's own screwed up gas with additive that is illegal to even make in California.

I was putting it into perspective. The refining process of crude oil into gasoline is much more costly than a latte. 100 gal per week, what are you driving, and if you are driving on business I'm sure you're passing the expense on to the customer?

Instead of not buying from an Exxon or Mobil station (neither of which even exist in my area, so the whole idea is retarded), why don't you just NOT buy so much dang gas? Sheesh, if you really care about gas prices get a Hyundai and sell your boat.

I especially like the part about how this originally came from a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. That's supposed to give this credibility? Try this instead:

"This originally came from a recently released sex offender who heard it from his cellmate, a convicted midget thrower who heard it from one of his midgets who babysat for a New York mafioso and overheard the mafioso advocating it."

The plan outlined above would work for 5 minutes. Once all the consumers start buying from the non-Exxon-Mobil stations, the long lines and high demand will trigger an immediate price hike at those outlets, maybe by one dime per gallon.

Meanwhile, the computers at the ExxonMobil HQ will sense a significant drop in demand and will lower their price by one dime. The stalemate will be over.

Everyone will drive across the street at the same time and tip the earth off its axis, gravity will get messed up, tsunamis and earthquakes will ensue, and we will all die because of this stupid thread on wakeworld.

I don't buy the use less gas and the price will go down theory, sorry. The price of gas has fluctuated from 1.99 to 3.49 in a matter of a few months. And now, as it's starting to creep back down, I'll bet consumption has remained the same, or most likely increased now that early summer is here, one of the highest demand times? Using less gas over a long period of time might help over the long run but I don't see how these crazy hikes in prices have anything to do with consumers demand. Prices fluctuate 60-70% in a such a small time frame. I don't see how demand is driving those increases because people aren't changing their consumption levels anywhere near that much, if at all?

> Seriously, it's simple supply vs. demand. If you want to lower gas costs get a bike. Believe me when people reduce their consumption the cost will go down.

Mikeski, I do concur that it's more 'supply and demand' verses 'price fixing' and conspiracies. However, I don't think reducing consumption will save us at this point. Population combined with India and China hitting their industrial eras will have far greater impact. Supply & Demand yes, but it's a very linear calculation whereas population is logarithmic.